TechSoup 101: Benefits of Your Member Profile

This blog post is part of a series focused on managing accounts at TechSoup.org.

Updated on 5/4/2014

As mentioned in the first post in this series about Registration, joining TechSoup as a member gives you access to the TechSoup forums and other useful community resources, as well as letting you register organizations and request product donations. In this post I'd like to talk about maintaining the individual member profile and taking advantage of some of those community resources!

The My Member Profile page contains the basic information such as name, email address, password and security question. This can be accessed through the Manage Account link at the top of the page link and then clicking on Edit This Information in the Profile Information section of the page.

The My Member Profile page also contains a link for your My Forum Profile page. For those members who are interested in engaging others in the nonprofit community to share stories, get feedback and suggestions, or look for technology solutions, the community forums are a great place to spend some quality time. You can ask questions about a specific technology, share advice on how you've set up your network, and answer questions from other nonprofit practitioners who need help with their technology.

The Community Profile page is a dashboard area where you can see your recent forum activity, posts that you have marked as your favorites, private messages, as well as recent posts by any of your forum friends. There are also links on the page to View and Edit Profile.

Your profile lets you add a photo and custom bio. You can also edit your community settings for notifications, and to add a signature, RSS feeds and additional information.

Why fill out your profile? It is an easy way to let others know about you and the work that your organization is doing, to network and make connections with other organizations and share resources and ideas!

I have been working with a church.We where raising money to feed the homeless of ATLANTA GA. The last 35 years i have been running a construction company. I am looking for a change.Start my on organisation or work with one all ready set up. Like the Optimist Club of America. I would like to help a orphanage with donation. Kid all ways need to lead and knot push. I would like to find a partner to help me with this task. markwhitworth@att.net

That's a terrific goal, Mark and I hope you're able to do it since there's a world of people out there who need help from others who care.

You may find that posting an introduction in our forums (forums.techsoup.org/.../19.aspx), with ideas of why kind of work you're interested in doing, would be a good way to start. We also have a forum where people post nonprofit jobs (forums.techsoup.org/.../28.aspx), though most are tech-focused (since TechSoup focuses on helping nonprofits and libraries with their technology needs).

In addition, I've found that one of the best ways to get a career in the nonprofit sector is to first volunteer with organizations you care about, to learn what their community is like and understand the challenges they face. Your church experience sounds like you've already had some terrific interaction with organizations that work with people who are homeless.

It sounds like you're also interested in kids in need. You may want to reach out to organizations like Save the Children or the Child Welfare League of America to see what their programs are and to learn about more organizations they work with on the local level to see where you can help. Save the Children works in the U.S. and internationally, whereas the Child Welfare League of America is mostly focused on kids in the U.S. who are in foster care and need a lot of support. Both are great organizations who do fantastic work on behalf of kids every day. If you're looking for a group specifically in Atlanta, I'm sure either organization could point you to a local chapter or partner.

I hope that helps and best of luck in your endeavors to give back to your community! It's through people like you to we can all make a real difference every day.

I am the treasurer for a local nonmprofit that provides services and limited financial assistance to local folks living with HIV/AIDS. However, our revenues have fallen drastically since the former treasurer never went out to secure steady funding streams. Now I am scrambling to try to get funding and donations to our nonprofit so that we can continue to help those who so desprately need us. I find myself at a loss for words at how overwhelming it can be to try to do the tasks that I have taken upon myslef. Can I use this forum to try to encourage donations and/or entice potential funders interested in setting up stead funding agreements?

Sorry, "LatinEgypt", but the forum isn't a place to solicit donations. You are welcomed to post to our forum and ask questions about software you are using, or want to use, about how to use social media to get more or better support clients, volunteers or staff, how to use technology to help staff work more efficiently and effectively, how to work with online volunteers, how to build an accessible web site, or about any other computer or Internet issues (including cell phones/smart phones). For advice on how to get technology funded, see this link on the TechSoup forum site: forums.techsoup.org/.../124662.aspx